Indiana State Police are warning about scammers claiming to be affiliated with the agency to gather personal information and to gain access to your home.

According to troopers, scammers are touting a Child Safety Kit available through Facebook ads. When you click on the link, you are asked to provide personal information including your contact details. The scammers have then been reaching out repeatedly by phone, trying to set up a home visit and claiming that they are offering services in cooperation with the state police.

In the most recent version, a Fort Wayne resident had two unidentified but well-dressed men show up at their home and attempt to sell what the scammers called an insurance policy in conjunction with the Child Safety Kit.

Troopers stress that you should never let these people into your home. You should always be wary of online solicitations seeking your personal information. If you have been a victim of this scam, especially if you have allowed them access into your home, you should contact your local law enforcement agency or your nearest Indiana State Police Post.

Seymour police are looking for the owner of a camera-equipped drone that banged into a girl’s window in the middle of the night.

Police say that the drone was recovered by the property owner after it hit the window at about 11 at night recently near Redding School. According to police, the uninvited video recording of people in some situations can be considered voyeurism.

Police are asking if you have any information on who could have been using the drone, you should contact the Seymour police anonymous tip line at 812-523-7629.

They also would love for the owner of the drone to stop by the police department to pick up the still-functional device.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools have added Columbus North assistant principal Susan Finke-Scott to the district’s Education Hall of Fame.

At this week’s school board meeting, board member Kathy Dayhoff-Dwyer recalled Scott’s influence on her when she was a student in Scott’s English class and had to memorize Hamlet’s soliloquy.

Selection committee member Larry Perkinson praised Scott’s dedication to the students and the teaching profession.

North Principal David Clark said that Scott began her teaching career at Hauser High School before coming to BCSC in 1979 to teach English. She went on to become a dean and then assistant principal.

Scott looked back on her career, remembering the times before computers, email and other modern changes:

Scott recalled other changes in her time — a time before standardized testing.

Scott was the 47th educator added to the hall of fame.

Photos courtesy of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.

Columbus City Council gave its first approval last night to a proposal to legalize the use of fireworks in the city during the Hindu festival of Diwali.

City Attorney Alex Whitted said that the revision would also bring the city fireworks ordinance into line with current state law.

Whitted said that last year, the City Council allowed exceptions to the law so that traditional fireworks could be set off during the Hindu festival. This change would incorporate that permanently into the city’s code.

The ordinance change would allow fireworks between 6 and 10 in the evenings on the day before, the day of and the day after Diwali. Diwali falls in October or November each year.

Representatives of the local Hindu community and local fireworks stores have asked for the ordinance change.

The ordinance change would also clarify that fireworks can not be set off after midnight on July 4th or Dec. 31st, in line with state law. It would allow fireworks from 10 in the morning until midnight on the Fourth of July and New Years Eve. In the five days leading up to the Fourth of July and the five days after, fireworks would be allowed from 5 in the evening until 11, or until two hours after sunset, whichever comes first.

The change passed unanimously and will come back to the Council for its final approval.

A Jennings County man is facing murder and arson charges after a two year investigation.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department reports that deputies served an arrest warrant on 37-year-old Michael Hubbard at about 11:21 p.m. last night during a planned traffic stop. He is accused in the May 2019 death of Robert Head in Country Squire Lakes. Head was set on fire in a vehicle and later died.

The sheriff’s department reports that deputies spent almost two years gathering evidence and holding interviews to gather probable cause that led to Hubbard’s arrest.

Hubbard is being held in the Jennings County Jail without bond.

Photos courtesy of Jennings County Sheriff’s Department

Water remains high in parts of our area and authorities are warning you not to drive onto flooded roadways.

Sgt. Stephen Wheeles with the Indiana State Police said this afternoon many rural roads in low-lying areas are still flooded and impassable. Throughout the Versailles State Police District emergency personnel have responded to many calls of vehicles becoming disabled and people needing to be rescued due to the high water.

Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer posted to social media about the dangers, with a photo of a truck that tried to push through, drove off of the submerged roadway and nearly flipped over.

They say that it doesn’t take very deep floodwaters to disable your vehicle or to sweep it off the flooded roadway.

East Fork White River in Seymour remains under a flood warning and minor flooding is still going on. The river is about a foot and a half below the moderate flood stage and is not expected to leave the minor flood stage until Thursday morning.

A Columbus man was arrested on drunk driving charges early Tuesday morning, after falling asleep in the drive-through lane at a closed restaurant.

Columbus Police found a running truck in the drive-through at Taco Bell on Jonathan Moore Pike at about 2:10 a.m. Tuesday morning with the driver asleep at the wheel. Police say that they could smell a strong odor of alcohol from the vehicle, and when they woke the driver, 52-year-old Keith B. Yeager of Columbus, he put the vehicle in gear and began to drive off. Additional police arrived on the scene and stopped him in the parking lot.

Police report that Yeager’s speech was slow and slurred. Sobriety tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of .181 percent, more than twice the legal limit.

He was arrested on a preliminary charge of operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .15 percent or higher.

Columbus City Council will be considering an ordinance tonight that will legalize the use of fireworks in the city during the Hindu festival of Diwali.

The ordinance change would allow fireworks between 6 and 10 p.m. in the evenings on the day before, the day of and the day after Diwali. Diwali falls in October or November each year.

Representatives of the local Hindu community and local fireworks stores have asked for the ordinance change.

The ordinance change would allow fireworks from 10 a.m. until midnight on the Fourth of July and New Years Eve. In the five days leading up to the Fourth of July and the five days after, fireworks would be allowed from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m., or until two hours after sunset, whichever comes first.

Columbus City Council meets virtually at 6 tonight. You can watch the streaming video on the city’s website at columbus.in.gov.

Bartholomew County Commissioners gave their first approvals to an ordinance yesterday that will make it cheaper and easier for high-speed internet to come to the county.

Commissioners Carl Lienhoop and Tony London approved the change that would revoke a 1988 ordinance that banned plowing by companies working in the county-controlled right-of-way along county roads.

County Attorney Grant Tucker explains the ordinance changes:

London explains that the change is part of the plan to reduce barriers that prevent rural broadband:

County Engineer Danny Hollander said that the new ordinance also sets bond amounts for contractors working in the right of way to today’s levels. He said that the 1988 bonds would not pay for potential damages caused under today’s prices.

Hollander also said the county does not have a permit application fee for work installing internet in the right-of-way.

London, who is heading the county’s efforts to improve high-speed internet access in rural parts of the county also announced Monday that internet provider Charter (Spectrum) has committed to bringing fiber speed internet to almost 1,600 homes in rural Bartholomew County. The affected areas stretch from across all parts of the county except for the area northwest of Columbus. London said he did not have a timeline for that service’s arrival.

Planned internet coverage map provided by Bartholomew County.